Open mind: gratitude therapy

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Getting people to focus on everyday things that they are grateful for, rather than life’s hassles, has a measurable and sustained effect on their sense of well-being and happiness

He’s a sly old dog, Mr Cancer. He sits across the room, unobtrusively most of the time, and keeps a discreet distance in the street. But he’s always there and there’s no doubting his persistence. We’ve had seven years of him, almost. We know what he wants, and we know he’ll never go away, but he’s biding his time, for which I am grateful. This is my wife’s third course of chemotherapy, capecitabine this time, which is one of the kinder drugs. The previous treatments were less benign. There’s no hair loss with capecitabine and no vomiting. The fatigue, the